ARTISTE: WUDDAH
This song is more than a year old but the words are still relevant and powerful and never runs out of season. This is a hiplife song done in the gospel version with very creative, poetic and rich lyrics that convey deep messages to the soul yearning for Christ Jesus.
LYRICS BREAKDOWN
I can’t rewrite all the lyrics here, so I will just summarise and give my analysis of the major pointers. The song opens with a rap about the fact that the Bible tells us to be mindful what we do or say because there is power in the words we use. Wuddah, in this simple message, is admonishing Christians to allow the word of God rather take center-stage in whatever we say or do.
The chorus says it all “I study His word over and over. My faith in Jehovah. Fire dey burn me all over.”
Notice the creative rhyming pattern of “ver and vah” in the chorus??? That is just awesomely “fire-ful”.
With this chorus, the Christian is being bluntly told that the study of the word of God should be done consistently on a daily basis so that he or she will be protected by the “Fire” of God “all over”.
Wuddah begins the rap by urging listeners to permit him take them on a tour of the Bible. With this, the Rapper is hoping to explain in practical details the intricacies of the Bible and how to relate it to practical living. He makes reference to Paul in the Bible who was first called Saul and committed atrocities against the followers of Jesus after the ascension. Wuddah uses the simile that whiles he was drenched in sin, people called him Saul but by the saving grace of Jesus Christ, he is now being called Paul. Similarly in the Bible, Saul’s name changed to Paul after he encountered Jesus on the way to Damascus. This is a creative way of telling the Christian to be grateful for the saving grace of God.
One interesting bit about the lyrics is where he says in the Twi language that Jesus has carried all his sins and refers to Jesus as “Yehowah kaya”. Kaya is a local Ghanaian term given to young ladies who carry other people’s shopping loads at the markets on their heads for a fee. They are called “head potters” but the local name is “kaya yo”. Wuddah alludes Jesus’s ability to carry his load of sins to a head potter, hence the name “Yehowah kaya”. This term may seem derogatory from the perspective of describing Jesus Christ as such but Wuddah quickly compensates that in the next line by giving Jesus beautiful accolades and says’ Which God dey like my Jehovah”.
The lyrics go on to describe the gym session where boys normally exercise by lifting weights and heavy metals to puff up their muscles. But Wuddah says “bodily exercise does not profit man in any way” and that when he remembers God, it is His name that he lifts up instead of lifting weights at the gym. Wuddah goes further to add in explanation that it is important to invest in building the soul than the physical body considering the kind of investment Jesus did with His blood by dying to save us more than 2000 years ago.
Wuddah goes ahead to give education on investments and financial prudence and the benefits to reap by investing in God and His righteousness.
He says as the son of a King, he goes for Gold and forgets the bronze. He draws a metaphoric comparison between royalty and athletics or sportsmanship. God is Royalty, and Royalty is noted for gold and that is what athletes aim for in a race and not bronze. This is a creative allusion to the part of the Bible that says we should run the race of faith with Christ as our goal.
The dopest part of the lyrics is where Wuddah says God has the ability to even transform the shame and scandalous reputation of a prostitute and honour her with marriage and so much beauty within and without that even her own husband would see and describe her as a virgin. This shows that God has the unlimited power to do anything at all. Note, changing the impossible to possible is God’s specialty and this is what Wuddah is describing her with the “Ashawo” punch line.
Take a listen to the song and enjoy the rich poetic lyrics of a powerful Christian message.
